"SAF3" (various directors, 2013-2014, TV series)

[Tom]

I am staring to get to the point where I belive Dolph used the push from expendibals a bit wrong

I've been wondering the same thing for the past couple years. A comeback, yes. Expendables was great for that. But the direction that his comeback has been heading leaves me wondering if it was for the best. The quality of some of his recent films rivals the films of his "slump" back in 1998-2002.

Honestly buddy it does. I mean I do reckon when looking back over D's career in a couple of decades time, we'll possibly look back at the Gianni Capaldi era with less fondness than the Damian Lee era. It's been that bad of late. Right now though, I'd put SAF3 up as one of the worst things Dolph has ever done, possibly even to the badness level of Fat Slags. At least in that he was having fun and as a cameo wasn't carrying the can.

[savagesketch]

Sorry, but I watched it again (against my better judgment), and had to voice my opinion and concern once again... What's so disappointing about SAF3, production values aside, is how unhappy and out of place Dolph seems. This is clearly not the right project for him. The guy's a badass, and he should be able to play a badass, not some Baywatch knockoff lifeguard/fireman/pilot, or whatever... There's a scene near the beginning of the pilot where all of the rescue members are hanging out, dancing, and giggling (yes, it's about as bad as it sounds). Dolph seems utterly embarrassed. And to add further insult to injury, he doesn't really get to rescue anyone in the episode.

No, this was clearly rushed in the post-production phase, and it shows. Stock footage of the deadly "inferno" is shown via a TV screen TWICE. The acting is horrible. Nothing but a bunch of young, attractive faces posing for the camera. 20 minutes in, there's even a lame five minute montage of the team suiting up. Slo mo, etc. Like this was for the promo real, but they decided to keep it in the pilot. The song that's played over the opening titles is played again. No joke.

Hate to say it, but I hope this gets canned after the first few episodes. It's an embarrassment and a low point in D's career. I understand he's trying to strike while the iron's hot and attach himself to whatever projects come his way (perhaps SAF3 sounded promising), but it hurts seeing him in low-rent sophomoric material like this. Kevin Sorbo, Lorenzo Lamas... SAF3 is material for them, but not Dolph.

[Moltisanti]

Dolph seems utterly embarrassed. And to add further insult to injury, he doesn't really get to rescue anyone in the episode.

He may not get to rescue anyone, but he does get to yell "Dunnigan!" about 30 times when he's looking for his boss in the fire. I find myself yelling "Dunnigan!" around my home at random times now. I'm that easily amused.

I'm gonna watch one more episode. Mainly out of a sick desire to see if it can possibly get any worse.

[Jox]

The guy's a badass, and he should be able to play a badass, not some Baywatch knockoff lifeguard/fireman/pilot, or whatever...

If it was well written and put together, playing a firefighter or lifeguard shouldn't keep him to be badass but this is no BACKDRAFT (nor BRINGING OUT THE DEAD even though it's not about lifeguards)... I hear there were some shows better like that called THIRD WATCH and TRAUMA. By the way the movie THE LIFEGUARD with Kirsten Bell actually looks good!

[hansson55]

I am truly ashamed of being a Dolph-fan, this is the worst thing I EVER seen

[hansson55]

I cant even begin to understand why Dolph did this

[hansson55]

This is the end of his career. No one can survive this crap

[Jox]

I cant even begin to understand why Dolph did this

Somehow he thought this could be good and a nice change of pace for him.
- the DTV market was going down
- he was getting tired of playing the stoic killing machine on screen and thought "saving people" would fun instead of killing them
- it was to be filmed in the U.S. and would offer him a nice day job financially interesting
- it was TV so it could give him more exposure worldwide than a DTV movie

Well now he knows, the sad thing is that he has to endure finishing the 13-episodes season for the next two months.

The good news is he's never had huge successes on his own but he still managed to survive and come back every now and then for the past 28 years so I'm not worried. In some ways maybe his general reputation of making bad movies kinda saves him. Might be worse if he had more to lose.

[bomaz]

For sure, the show won't do any good to dolph, but i won't any bad in my opinion.
Dolph has always been highly respected by critics or movie fans (they may not like his movies, but they respect the guy) and by what I would say "common people" (not movie enthousiast, just the avergae audience).

I watched the beginning of the show, and it doesn't look like the piece that will make TV evolve, but it's not worse than some other crap on TV (I'm not a great tv or tv show enthusiast).
Dolph will be back to his feet in no time, I trust him for that.

[hansson55]

Maybe you are right. I was just hoping for a watchbel show every weekend, thought Dolph should have chosen his tv-project a bit better.

[shooby]

Maybe you are right. I was just hoping for a watchbel show every weekend, thought Dolph should have chosen his tv-project a bit better.

I just wondering if Dolph is sufficiently influential to finance his own project of tv show alone

[Jox]

TV is another ballgame. But the show has to be content-based first, the sell must be on the high-concept first not Dolph alone, that's what all the great shows are today. They get great cast but their concepts are original and appealing first and foremost and I think the cast comes after.

The thing with RESCUE 3/SAF3 is the concept -if there ever was one- was crap from the start and was 20 years behind. The creators (a former lifeguard and a former model) are not talented creative people and hoped to make a buck on a cheesy and lazy show where all the biggest creation was the team logo (which you can see everywhere so I hope the designer got paid well but I think he's credited as one of the co-producers)...

The other fucked up thing is to have set and kept the premiere for this fall which after they post-poned the shoot for 6 months left basically 1 month to deliver the first episode (which seems they even had to stretch, as scenes go on forever and nothing happens, or like on DIAMOND DOGS they didn't have time to film the initial script so they shot a few scenes and had them go on for 43 mins)...

[Jox]

By the way the production value of the promo reel now looks great, even the close-ups on the costumes look better. (the promo footage was shot in L.A. and was likely more prepared than the first episode)
http://www.kefski.com/saf3/international_promo.html
(oh and when they say they'll be using special cameras to take you right in the action, I'm sure they meant to use GoPro cameras initially... glad they didn't)

[savagesketch]

The other fucked up thing is to have set and kept the premiere for this fall which after they post-poned the shoot for 6 months left basically 1 month to deliver the first episode (which seems they even had to stretch, as scenes go on forever and nothing happens, or like on DIAMOND DOGS they didn't have time to film the initial script so they shot a few scenes and had them go on for 43 mins)...

It's been awhile since I saw DIAMOND DOGS, not to mention I only saw it once... Which scenes are the ones that dragged on due to the unfinished script? I may have to watch that one again just to watch the scenes in reference...

[Jox]

Maybe it's not the best comparison but basically the 90 mins of DD represent a 1/3 of the original script, so it should have been 30 mins. It's kind of like they stretched out the first two acts (which would have been first act only in screenplay), and cranked up a hasty third act while omitting events, dialogs, characters and situations that made the script interesting and "bigger".